Mobile Entity Communication Range Mapping for Stable Overlap Regions
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Solution Overview
Problem
In environments with poor visibility, such as underwater conditions, maintaining communication between mobile entities becomes challenging due to unstable communication ranges and the difficulty in determining whether communication has been interrupted or will succeed, especially when the distance between robots is large and the environment changes, making it difficult to maintain consistent communication.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus that estimates a communication range, approximates its boundary with polygons, and generates a region where the mobile entities can overlap to ensure constant communication by setting movement regions based on these polygons, using methods like split & merge and convex hull algorithms to optimize computation efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If robots communicate to acquire position information in environments with poor visibility, then position information can be obtained, but communication may be unstable and may not necessarily succeed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by estimating communication ranges and generating boundary information before actual communication attempts. By pre-calculating the regions where communication is guaranteed to succeed, the system avoids the uncertainty of unstable communication and ensures position information can be reliably acquired.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary computational framework that mediates between the physical communication channel and the position information acquisition. This framework uses geometric calculations of communication ranges and boundary intersections to determine reliable communication regions, acting as an intermediary layer that ensures position information can be obtained even when direct communication is unstable.
2Device complexity
If the communication range is represented by a sphere in favorable environments, then the representation is simple, but when the environment changes the communication range is no longer uniform and cannot be represented by a sphere
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the communication range representation into two parts: a simple spherical model for favorable environments and a polygonal boundary model for changing environments. By dividing the problem into these two cases, the system maintains simplicity when possible while adapting to complexity when necessary, resolving the contradiction between representation simplicity and environmental adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically switches between different communication range representations based on environmental conditions. When the environment is favorable, it uses the simple spherical representation; when the environment changes, it transitions to the more complex polygonal boundary representation. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to maintain both simplicity and versatility as needed.
3Reliability
If methods are used to maintain communication by detecting interruptions or setting distance limits, then communication can be maintained, but it is difficult to determine whether communication has been interrupted or will succeed in unstable environments
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of reacting to communication interruptions after they occur, the system performs preliminary calculations to estimate communication ranges and generate boundary information in advance. By pre-determining the regions where communication is guaranteed to succeed, the system eliminates the difficulty of detecting and measuring communication state in real-time unstable environments.
Data Source
AI summary
An information processing apparatus includes: an estimating unit that estimates a communication range of a first mobile entity; an approximating unit that generates information representing a boundary of the communication range; and a generating unit that generates a region where a plurality of points, which are included in a first movement region that has been set in advance for the first mobile entity, and a communication range of the first mobile entity at each of the plurality of points overlap.